


==> Be John

by Unda



Series: It's the end of the world as we know it [20]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, F/M, Quadrant Confusion, god tier powers suck ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 01:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13513980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda
Summary: Comprises the free will segment ==> Be John in chapter 34 of MC Escher





	==> Be John

==> Be John

Karkat called you a leader and you’re not too sure about that but what you are sure about is that you have a particularly awesome team before you! 

Your sister has your back, she’s your right hand man- uh, woman. Rose is clearly the brains of this operation and you can absolutely rely on her. Latula is… older than you and probably good in a fight? Maybe? And Gamzee is, honestly, possibly crazy and maybe high. You know your dad went around with Signless and took all of the sopor away but the guy looks pretty chill for a sober guy. 

Maybe your team isn’t that awesome, maybe you did something to piss Karkat off. You try to differentiate between any event lately when Karkat has been shouting and it might have been your fault. It’s just so hard, there’s so  _ many _ times it happens. Honestly you never would have thought that Dave would be into dudes but if you had thought that you wouldn’t have put your money on Karkat. 

You watch Dave leave with Jade and her team and a little jealousy prickles at you, why couldn’t you have got Jade and Dave on your team as well as Rose?

Looking back at Rose she raises an eyebrow at you.

“Would you like me to tell you what we end up doing or would you like to have the long debate about it first?” Rose asks. 

“Doesn’t that affect the timeline?” Jane asks with a little frown. 

“Not a small thing like that, whichever we do the result is the same so it’s really just moot and my boredom that we’re dealing with.” Rose shrugs. 

“It’s a straight up miracle how you can just get to seeing all the truth in things.” Gamzee says, nodding in appreciation. 

“Ain’t it just?” Rose says in her most proper voice, making Gamzee snort laugh. 

“Well I’m all up for getting in on the action, so let’s hear what we end up doing!” Latula says brightly. 

“Yeah Rose, let’s get going. What’s the plan?” you ask her. 

You watch as Rose’s eyes track behind your shoulder and she freezes for a moment. You hear Dave’s laugh behind you and turn to see that Dave has just ducked back through the door to say something and Roxy has him in a playful headlock. Rose looks… sad. They’ve been fighting, everyone knows it but both of them have been keeping it pretty down low on what the fight was about. That means it must be pretty serious because when they fight about petty shit they always drag everyone else into it for the short time that it lasts. 

“We, ah, we go to Latula’s planet. As a Knight of Mind she has skills that we will need later, the ability to manipulate thoughts and more importantly, destroy that manipulation.” Rose says, focusing back on you again. 

You don’t really like the sound of that but you’ve all learnt that Rose’s visions are never wrong. 

“What was your planet again, Latula?” Jane asks politely. 

“Verdict and Valour, LOVAV which totes sounds like human slang for  _ something _ yanno?” Latula laughs loudly.

“Lead the way!” you say brightly to her because you don’t think you can remember which one of the far too many planets is hers. Latula walks on and the rest of you follow her. Some groups have left already but others are still gathering themselves together. Vriska peels off from her group and runs over to yours. Anxiety flutters in your belly, Hal said that Vriska was your other soulmate but she’s wearing long sleeves today so you can’t see anything on her arms. You don’t know if you want to. Vriska seems nice and all but all this romance stuff seems impossible to you. You know that Terezi is your soulmate but you don’t want anything much to do with her, the idea of being all snuggly and lovey dovey like Dave and Karkat are or even your sister and Roxy is just gross. 

Vriska isn’t even looking at you, she’s looking at Rose. 

“Rose, remember: focus.” Vriska says seriously. She blinks her alien eyes and you can’t help but stare at her one freaky eye with the seven black and grey circles in it. It should creep you out but honestly it’s just kinda fascinating. 

“Actually,” Rose says folding her arms, “today is a day where I need to see. So as much as I would love to put your highly nonspecific advice into action I shall abstain.” 

“What’s so important about today, huh? Where are you even going?” Vriska demands, keeping pace with Rose. 

“Oh, it’s not me who’s going somewhere special. We’re just off to Latula’s planet but you… I know where you’re going.” Rose says slyly. 

“Really? And where’s that?” Vriska sneers. Rose pauses in her tracks and leans in towards Vriska, her smile cunning at catlike. 

“Wherever I tell you to.” Rose purrs and then sweeps out of the room dramatically. 

Left behind in stunned silence Vriska screeches in anger and stomps off. 

“So uh,” Latula says as she starts walking again, “is the whole ‘humans don’t do pitch’ thing a myth or are Lalonde girls just weird?” 

“I’m not sure I can comment on all humans but Lalonde women are absolutely weird.” Jane chuckles. 

“Humans ain’t so different.” Gamzee nods again. 

Outside in the hallway you find Rose waiting, evidently her dramatic exit doesn’t work so well when the rest of you don’t keep up. Either way she falls into step with you and you all find your way out of the ship. Behind you Latula and Jane are trying to find some common ground but the kind of games that Latula plays aren’t the point and click adventure puzzle solving things that your sister plays. 

“It’s a really great game, so funny too.” Jane says brightly. 

“Money Island?” Latula asks. 

“No, Monkey Island. It’s a pirate thing, it’s so clever.” Jane corrects her. 

“You know what? Sure, shoot me a copy and I’ll give it a whirl. Retro game stuff if pretty rad so I might like it, but you should give something newer and sandbox style a whirl, I’ve got, like, everything made by Bethesda. I gots to have something up your alley.” Latula brags. 

Latula’s planet is a kinda TRON like it’s all shadowy with bolts of teal and green light running through it, her consorts are cute little frilled lizards in cyber armor. A group of them clusters around your group, well, not around Rose as she’s floating in the air texting away on her phone. 

“The arbiter has returned!” they chant over and over again. 

“Aw, crap.” Latula groans, holding her hands out of little lizard reach. 

“What’re they talking about with that ‘arbiter’ stuff?” Jane asks curiously.

“They’re- it’s dumb…” Laula groans, looking over at Jane. 

“A quest?” you guess. 

“Yeah, they want me to, like, pass judgement on them. It sucks.” Latula complains. 

Gamzee’s slow, painted face wrinkles with something like disdain. 

“Ain’t choices and judgment be landing squarely in your house, mind-sis? Maybe you oughta just go with the flow it and judge like they’re wanting you to.” Gamzee says lazily. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know everyone hates their quests and all that. Come on, let’s go then.” Latula sighs and your group is led along by the little frilled lizards with their silly ruffs. Rose is floating on behind you, still on her phone. 

“You know if I ever get the ability to fly I think I’m going to do what you do, fly everywhere I can.” you say to her and she looks up from her phone and smiles at you, her black painted lips curling at the very edges. 

“It is,” she says stretching out and lazily floating on her back by your side as you walk, “a pretty great perk to the whole thing.” 

“I’ll say.” you agree. 

“Sorry for being distracted, I’m trying to fix something.” Rose apologises, tucking her phone away and gliding upright next to you for a change. 

She must mean things with her and Dave.

“Ah, say no more.” you nod, winking at her. 

“I feel you.” you add. Rose raises an eyebrow at you. 

“Do you? Oh, as they say, hoe.” Rose drawls, a perfect imitation of Dave’s sarcasm. You’re suddenly reminded of the halloween where they went as each other. Man what’re you all gonna do for halloween this year?

“Did you just call me a hoe?” you gasp in faked offence. Rose smiles slyly and floats behind you, her arms wrapping around you so that her fingers drum on your bare arms, on your dragon and bunny. 

“If the boot fits.” Rose says sweetly. 

“Oh my god!” you yell flailing and shoving the now tittering Rose away. 

“Did you just indirectly call Roxy a hoe?” Jane asks suspiciously. 

“She’ll live, I’m sure. Besides I don’t hear any complaints from you about my apparently slutty sister.” Rose quips. 

“I would protest more but somehow I think she’d find the accusation side-splittingly funny rather than offensive.” Jane sighs, shaking her head. 

The lizards lead you into a giant room with a huge glowing teal platform in the middle of it. There are way more lizards here and your path towards the platform is slow. 

“I just don’t even know what to do with this soulmate thing. I didn’t have one for the longest time and now I’ve got two!” you complain.

“Hm, like busses. You wait forever for one and two come along at once.” Rose muses, back on her phone again. 

“Not sure if either of his soulmates would appreciate  _ that _ comparison.” Jane points out. 

“On the contrary, in London in England busses are giant, bright red, and would kill you the moment they hit you if they were to strike you. I think Terezi would be exceedingly pleased with the comparison.” Rose replies. 

“Oh, for sure.” Latula agrees from upfront. 

“I don’t get Terezi, I mean, she’s nice until she starts talking to me. She’s meant to be my soulmate and I’m supposed to be all in love with her but I just don’t feel it. Honestly it’s the opposite, and Dave gets on with her way better than I do and she’s meant to be my soulmate!” you protest.

Rose shakes her head and lowers her phone. 

“I understand. You don’t feel all soft towards her because as a person she’s sharp enough and feral enough to fight just about anything off, she doesn’t need that.” Rose says and you nod enthusiastically. 

“Right! I mean she’s blind but did you see her fight the sea witch with that sword that she’s apparently carrying around all the time?! And I try to be nice to her but it’s like she’s deliberately trying to annoy me or show off how much smarter than me she is!” you exclaim. Ahead of you the two trolls are watching with interest. 

“And what you really want is to prove that you’re just as capable as her, hmm? Or better yet, more so?” Rose continues.

“Well, obviously.” you snort. Like you’re just going to let a blind girl show you up like that. 

“And one would assume that you wouldn’t want that to be the end of it. That would be boring, right? You’d want her to keep the game going, to try to prove that she’s still interested in you and also in being more impressive, then you could counter and then her. Like a never ending game.” Rose says. 

“That sounds way better than just bickering.” you say unhappily because so far that’s what the two of you have been doing, just snapping at each other. A real game like that sounds way more fun. 

“Whereas, say, Vriska… I would guess that for some reason you think that she has a… soft centre under all of her self aggrandising bitchiness. Or something?” Rose asks with a grimace. 

“Geez, Rose, I thought you two were friends!” you laugh, the two of them have certainly been talking a lot lately even if they’re all snarky about it. 

“Something like that.” she mutters. 

“But you don’t think so? I mean, I don’t know her that well but Vriska seems like she works hard as a leader because she has people’s interests at heart deep down.” you reason. Sure she butts heads with Karkat all of the time but they get there together, they’re good co-leaders!

“Deep, deep, deep,  _ deep _ down. Maybe.” Rose mutters. Latula stifles a bout of laughter into her hand and Rose glares at her. 

“Regardless of your terrible choice in flush soulmates I think you’ll be fine with the two of them.” Rose shrugs and leans back in the air like she’s in an invisible hammock and starts texting again. 

“But what about Terezi?” you reason. 

“It’ll work out.” Rose says unhelpfully. Jane is watching you with a thoughtful expression and Latula is giggling to herself. You feel like you’re missing something here. 

“So, not just Lalondes then.” Latula laughs. 

“It seems not.” Jane agrees, though to what you don’t know. 

“Humans are all kinds of miraculous, man. Don’t even know the miracles of their own hearts.” Gamzee says sagely. 

You’re all standing on the glowing teal platform now and the ground below is thronging with excited lizards with rattling frills. A small consort ushers Latula forward to stand on a glowing spot and the crowd hushes itself excitedly. A bright light snaps on and Latula recoils from it with a wince, holding a hand up to shield her eyes. Projected in the air behind you is the figure of Justice, a blindfold over her eyes and scales in her outstretched hand. Opposite the platform that you’re on, a narrow pillar fit for just one consort rises up. 

“My Knight!” the consort salutes, slapping a long fingered hand to his chest. 

“I need your judgement!” he cries out and you watch Latula cringe a little. You and Jane look at each other in confusion and just keep watching.

“My parents want me to become a quest guardian, that it’s what I’m for but my heart says to be with my true love! What do I do?” the consort asks.

“I-” Latula hesitates, “what do you want to do?” 

“I don’t know, tell me what your judgement is, please!” the consort pleads. 

“I mean- can’t you do both? Can’t you date your boo and still be a guardian?” she asks. 

“No, the rules prohibit that.” the consort says, shaking his little head and making his frills flutter.

“Those rules a bogus then!” Latula blurts out, the consorts burst into concerned chatter and the consort on the pillar looks uncertain.

“Are- are you saying we should abolish the rules?” the consort asks timidly.

“No, I mean, I- hold on.” Latula says and backs away from the glowing spot, she turns to face all of you. 

“You see? It’s always this kinda crap here, judging people! That’s not who I am! I know I gotta pass this quest but it’s so hard!” Latula complains. 

“It’s tricky.” Jane agrees. You’re not sure what to say either. 

You look over at Rose but she seems to be barely paying any attention, still typing away furiously on her phone.

“Rose?” you nudge her. 

“Yeah, yeah, go with Gamzee’s thing first.” Rose mumbles, still typing. Is she talking to Dave or something? She’d better at least be apologising. 

“Gamzee didn’t say anything yet.” you tell her but she just makes an ‘mm-hm’ noise and ignores you. You all look at Gamzee. 

“Well… seems to me that this test is all about makin’ a call and makin’ those little guys stick to it. Just come down hard on ‘em.” Gamzee recommends. 

“But I don’t know what the right call is.” Latula protests. 

“If it’s all the same to you then it don’t matter, just pick one and drum it into their heads.” the juggalo says. And here you all are, taking advice from an alien clown cultist. Somewhere your life took a very weird turn. 

“Better than nothing I guess.” Latula shrugs and steps back into her glowing spot again. 

“I declare that, uh, you, my dude need to totally focus on your quest. If I have to then so do you.” Latula declares, her voice booming across the room with some kind of magical amplification. The platform lowers and you hear a small but devastated voice yell out ‘Jeremy no!’ and a tiny consort rushes out of the room in tears on tiny pattering feet. 

That doesn’t feel good and you’re not getting the boost of experience that you usually do when questing with someone else and hitting a goal. 

“I don’t think that was right.” Latula groans. 

You look around at Rose, she’s sat on the ground now with her laptop out and she’s typing away with great speed into a chat window, but it doesn’t look like Dave that she’s talking to. Before you can get a better look she clicks over to a map and starts zooming back out and scrolling through planets. 

“Rose?” you call out to her. 

“Nh, Jane now.” Rose grunts, waving a hand at you and then zooming back in on a planet. 

“So helpful.” Jane says disapprovingly. 

“Oh god they’re bringing up more.” Latula moans in dismay. 

“Jane, give her some advice!” you insist. 

“Well- fine. Ok, you need a long term goal for what you want here. For what you want this planet to do, how your consorts should behave. Set a goal and then shape the small decisions to that, then you won’t be so lost.” Jane recommends. 

“I can see that working. Well, I… I want the little guys to have fun, you know? But I need help on my quests, so as long as they’re doing what they need to then the rest is whatever.” Latula shrugs. 

“Well that’s…” Jane trails off. 

You know your sister, ever organised. No one gets to be the heir to a corporation the size of Betty Crocker, to manage as much as she does and try to keep her head on her shoulders without being driven and methodical. Jane is one hell of a tactician and a real puzzle solver too, you had to get up real early in the day to get one over on her. So that kind of response was a little… below Jane’s standards. But she’s nice too, so she smiles warmly at Latula. 

“That sounds like a great place to start.” she finishes brightly and urges Latula back on the platform. 

Latula stands there and projects cool, laid back confidence. It reminds you a little of how Dave fronts sometimes. You’d think acting all cool was a knight thing if it wasn’t for Karkat who has negative amounts of cool and chill and may have been responsible for global warming or something!

There’s a squabble of lizards below and finally one is thrown on the ground. Two pillars rise up in front of the platform this time, bringing up the lizard that was thrown there and another one on a separate pillar. 

“Aw nuts.” Latula mutters. 

On the one pillar a lizard flares its frills angrily and gestures to the other lizard. 

“This consort has failed you, my Knight! She was absent from her post at the pit of valour on Wednesday!” the first consort shouts.

“Wait, Wednesday? The day I fell into that big gladiator pit and nearly got my face bashed in by a giant hammer?” Latula asks in surprise. 

“THE VERY SAME. She was supposed to be there to explain it to you!” The first consort insists. 

“Girl, that was a dick move, not gonna lie.” Latula says flatly. 

“You don’t understand,” the second consort protests and suddenly her frill flares and it’s painted a whole rainbow of colours, “I’m an ARTIST!”

“Oh. That is pretty.” Latula notes. 

“I had to leave to paint, it’s my whole reason to live… to CREATE!” the consort insists dramatically. 

“Uh…” Latula looks from one consort to the other and then back at Gamzee and Jane. She has no idea what to do. Jane nods encouragingly. 

“Right, well… you shouldn’t have left your post. That wasn’t cool, I coulda been killed. But art is rad and I totally get your drive for it but maybe stay at your post and do it there or find someone to cover for you? I mean, it’s whatever.” Latula shrugs. 

“But that’s not judgement!” the first consort protests even though the pillars are already sinking into the ground. You sigh, still no rush of game bestowed reward. 

“I’m supposed to be the leader, Rose. We could use your help.” you point out. 

Rose is frowning at her screen and muttering. 

“Trust me when I say you’re fine, it’s your turn now.” Rose assures you but again she doesn’t even break her gaze from the screen. 

“My turn to give advice that won’t work?” you ask, getting more and more irritated with her brushing you off like this. 

“John,” Rose says and looks at you finally. It looks like her eyes are actually sort of glowing a little, maybe you couldn’t tell normally but in the dim light of this room you think you see it.

“You trust me, don’t you?” She asks.

“But you’re supposed to be helping.” he argues.

“I am, trust me. Just give you advice with the next case and it’ll all come together, but if I don’t do what I have to do now then everything will go indescribably awful. Trust me.” Rose insists. 

It’s not like she’s giving you much choice. Jane is watching you and Gamzee is seemingly trying to convince Latula to try it his way again. Well, if you have to give her advice or else something awful and vague will happen you may as well try.

You duck past Jane and tap Latula on the arm, she looks down at you with a smile. 

“Maybe this is one of those tests where you shouldn’t do what they ask.” you say, pulling that guess entirely out of your ass. 

“Like how?” Latula asks. 

“Like… I know we’re the players and everything but why do we get to boss them around?” you say. 

“Yeah, who am I to judge how they live their lives?” Latula agrees. You’re not really filled with confidence though, she’s agreed with each of you so far. 

Two pillars rise up from the crowd again with two separate frilled lizard consorts on them, one is decked out in all manner of glowing little trinkets. They’re not even to the top of their ascent when the fancy lizard points at the other. 

“He refuses to give me what is mine!” the fancy lizard accuses. 

“What’s yours?” Latula asks. 

“My land, I own it and it contains several of your quest areas. But he’s squatting there and claiming that it’s his!” the fancy lizard insists. 

“My Knight!” the other lizard protests, “No one was using that land when I found it, the quests weren’t even working. I got everything fixed up.” 

“You have no right to criticize! I am an Ego-Baron and that land is my right, for all you know that was how it was supposed to be and she was supposed to work with it just like that. I want my land back and this man thrown on your mercy!” the fancy lizard declares. 

“So I’m supposed to just, what, leave them to it?” Latula whispers to you. 

“I guess so, they managed just fine before we came along, right?” you shrug. 

“John!” Jane says disapprovingly. 

“Okay… Well then I say…” Latula trails off with a frown. She glances sidelong at the little lizard who is on your platform but hasn’t said much aside from telling Latula where to stand. 

“One second.” Latula says quickly and leans over to the small consort. 

“Hey bro, what’s an Ego-Baron?” Latula whispers to it. 

“Oh, I suppose you wouldn’t know. Before you got here the land was divided up under the care of barons to make sure it would be ready for your arrival, it’s an inherited title.” the consort answers her. 

Latula straightens up and stands more centrally on her spot, she folds her arms. 

“Fancy pants, you’re a baron, right?” Latula asks. 

“Well, why yes, I hold that esteemed position and I think that should hold to my good standing, unlike this common hobo.” the lizard huffs and the second flares his frill in clear agitation. 

“Nah, dude, not so much. You didn’t earn that title, you were just born you don’t get credit for that.” she snorts and the fancy lizard looks horrified. 

“But like, you had this big responsibility to look after some section of this planet- of my quests, and you just ghosted on it and let everything go to crap. Then this dude here comes along and  _ chooses _ do so something that he doesn’t have to because he thinks it’s right and you want me to punish him?” she scoffs. The second lizard is looking hopeful and the fancy one looks horrified. 

Latula looks back to the little consort near them again. 

“Can I, like, scoot them closer?” she whispers. 

“There’s a button, I think, on the back part of the… there.” the consort mumbles, pointing with its little hand. Latula steps where the consort indicated and the two pillars slide forward until they’re almost at your platform. Rose clicks her laptop shut and turns to watch all of you.

“You didn’t do anything dude, you don’t got rights to shit. This guy made a choice to try to help and even if it doesn’t end up being the right one he still did something and that’s gotta be better than… than sitting around hoping shit’ll work out.” Latula states. 

“So you know what? Nah, man, get rekt.” Latula laughs and stomps her foot on the floor, sending the fancy lizard flying.

A rush of experience points shoots you up your esheladder, that was it. That was what Latula needed to learn!

The remaining consort beams at her, presses a hand to his chest and bows. 

“Thank you, my Knight.” he says softly. Latula giggles in delight and copies his motion. 

“I said it’d work out.” Rose says. 

“You didn’t really help.” Jane says, her hands on her hips. 

“This right here didn’t need my help. Something else did.” Rose shrugs. 

“And what was that?” you ask. 

“I can’t tell you, it’s not happened yet. But you’ll find out in… seven hours. We have to stay down here for just shy of that too and now that I’ve done what I need to in order to make sure that things don’t go catastrophically wrong I can help here. Latula still needs to get enough quest experience to get a power that we need so we should go to another area on the planet.” Rose says, standing up and dusting herself off though you are sure she’s not dusty at all. 

You bite your tongue for a moment and turn to the others. 

“Let’s see what else we can find for you Latula.” you say brightly and Latula cheers, loops her arm with Jane’s and rushes off. Gamzee follows them behind lazily, leaving you and Rose. 

“Are you ok? You’ve been really weird lately and I know you-” you start.

“Died? Got powers I wouldn’t wish for and can’t turn off? That sort of thing?” Rose says flatly and turns to walk off. You quick walk to keep up with her. 

“Yeah. And I’m sure it blows but you’ve been really off, you won’t even let us help.” you protest. 

“You can’t help, but I’m getting some help. Vr- ugh, Vriska is helping. Her classpect means that she can help me to choose to not see it’s just today isn’t a day that I can afford to do that with.” Rose says with a grimace at the mere mention of Vriska. You don’t get her problem with her, sure she can be overbearing and bossy but so can Rose and you like her plenty. 

You’re not even going to ask her what happens today, you know she won’t tell you. Damnit, you need backup here. 

[ectoBiologist began pestering gardenGnostic]

EB: jade i need your help stat!

GG: :O

GG: what for?

EB: rose is still being a butt and i wanna work out if her and dave fighting is her fault or his or what.

GG: hmm you want me to ask dave?

EB: yeah but be subtle, you know?

GG: on it!

You have to wait about a minute or two before she gets back to you and in the meantime you can question Rose some more. 

“So you see everything?” you ask curiously. 

“Pretty much, there are some exceptions.” Rose shrugs. The five of you leave the building and start heading out to the greater landscape. 

“Like?” you ask. 

“Like if the void players are actively doing their voidy thing it’s a big black spot in my vision. I also can’t see what’s in the void, I had no way of knowing that Roxy could pull the matriorb out of there only that we had it later. Vriska can help steal some of my sight. And the further away things are the more detail I lose. It’s like, look you’re wearing your glasses you can see everything just fine can’t you?” Rose asks, pausing and gesturing to the landscape around you and your teammates ahead. 

“Pretty much, yeah.” you nod. Rose holds up her hand before you, not right in front of your face but still. 

“You can see every detail of my hand, yes? How I filed my nails the other day and they’re neat right now, you can see the cut I got on that can of pineapple last week just here. Imagine that all of the detail you see here is today. You see everything. Now over there you can see Latula and your sister as well as Gamzee. They’re next week, next month, and so on.” Rose explains. 

“I can see all the big stuff about the future when it’s far off. I can tell you that next week Dave is going to get Sollux’s blood all over his record shirt and he won’t be able to stand cleaning it and he’ll throw it away. I can tell you that tomorrow there will be another life on our ship. But I can’t tell you what you’ll have for breakfast in two weeks time any more than you can tell me from this distance what colour Latula’s nails are.” Rose explains. You’re not sure you want to ask for details on either of those events so you don’t. 

“But you see everything before it’s going to happen on the day?” you guess. 

“I’m just following a script. It’s claustrophobic, I miss surprises.” Rose admits softly and takes and umbrella out of her sylladex. She pops it open above both of you and before you can ask why it starts raining. Under the dimmed light of the umbrella and the faint neon lights around you Rose looks washed out and sad. How did she become like this?

“But- but maybe it is like a play. The big things have to happen and you can’t pull it off course but when we had school plays people would forget their lines and make up something similar that still got the job done. Maybe you’re just seeing the script but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something else as long as the big things happen, it can’t be all important!” you argue. 

“I know how this argument plays out, John.” Rose sighs and keeps walking, you rush to keep up with her and not be left in the rain. 

“Well what about Dave, aren’t his powers similar? He has time travel.” you point out. 

“Dave’s time loops are different, he will naturally do what he’s supposed to but he’s just more aware of how things have to turn out when he’s like that. He can turn it off and believe he has a choice when he’s not doing it.” Rose says, shaking her head. 

“Is that why you’re mad at him? Because he got the better powers?” you wonder and though Rose evidently knew you were going to say that you can still see her gritting her teeth. Her eyes glow again for a moment. 

“Do you know how many times he will die? How he’ll die heroically eventually and if your sister doesn’t learn how to bring people back to life he will never come back? And that even IF I told him that he’d still do it anyway? He hates his powers just as much as I hate mine, if he screws up he dies instantly, if I screw up everyone dies. I can’t just deviate from what is supposed to happen.” Rose says stiffly. 

“Can you see inside my head?” you ask. 

“What? No. Terezi probably could if she advanced far enough but right now not even she can do that.” Rose says, shaking her head. 

Your phone buzzes in your pocket. 

GG: dave wont tell me what rose said but he was apparently trying to help her feel better and she did something really cruel

EB: it’s gotta be bad if he won’t say though, right? i mean normally he’d be whining to us about it.

GG: he still seems really upset by it

GG: ive never seen them fight like this

EB: me neither

You consider this and look around you for inspiration. 

“Dave would like this planet, don’t you think?” you ask, pointing up at the buildings that look like something out of a noir movie and a sci-fi movie all at once. 

“I know what you’re trying to do, John.” Rose says flatly, the two of you stop to watch Latula and Jane talking to a consort with a little umbrella.

“Yeah, to prove that you don’t have to follow your script exactly. Tell me what happens next with you and with Dave.” you ask. Rose looks at you with sad lavender eyes. 

“You try to convince me to take a photo to send to Dave, a way of apologising for what I said. Which is pointless by the way because he forgives me tonight no matter what. I decline and you get sulky until an interesting thing pops up in Latula’s quest and you get sidetracked. Dave mopes around with Jade until he suddenly has to leave to go to Kankri’s planet then he doesn’t talk about me again until I see him tonight.” Rose says. 

“So if you took the photo that timeline would still exist, right? We just wouldn’t be it, right? OR I’m right that you can change small stuff and we’re still the right one and you and Dave both feel better.” you argue. Rose takes her phone out and holds it up to you.

“And if I take this picture I end the universe.” Rose says, holding the phone up to prove her point. 

“Or you prove you don’t need to do what you see all the time and you’re not so miserable all the time.” you counter. 

Rose turns her back on you so you jump her from behind, wrapping her in a hug that doesn’t seem to surprise her at all. You grab for the phone and line it up with a building wreathed in neon with Latula, Jane and Gamzee at the base. You don’t put her thumb on the button to take the picture though, it should be her choice. 

“I can’t just end the universe.” Rose says weakly. 

“A universe that demands that you be miserable as shit isn’t one I wanna live in anyway.” you point out and Rose hesitates. She sucks in a sharp breath and lets go of the umbrella so it slides down against your shoulders and heads so that she can stabilise the photo with her other hand. 

Rose hesitates and then… takes the photo. She lowers the phone and turns to look at you, her eyes glowing again as she looks around at nothing. Or nothing you can see. 

“It changed, we’re still here and it changed. Not the big stuff but the little stuff did.” Rose whispers. 

“You’re not trapped then. You should send it to him.” you urge her. 

“I can’t see what’ll happen if I do yet, it’s…” Rose sniffs and tears roll down her cheeks. She leans in and presses a kiss to your cheek and wraps her arms around you.

“Thank you.” she mumbles into your shirt. She still has her phone in her hands and you can feel her typing. 

When she pulls away from you her face is splotchy and red in places, her smile wobbly but genuine. You punch her lightly in the arm. 

“See, you should tell your best friends when you’re upset. We can help, you know.” you tell her. 

“My hero.” Rose giggles wetly, wiping under her eyes carefully so as not to smudge her makeup or something dumb like that. Rose walks to the others leaving you in the rain, you duck inside a building after her and check your phone when it buzzes.

GG: i think they made up!

GG: dave got a message from her and he looks so much happier now what did you do?

EB: nothing much, i just talked her out of being a dumbass. 

GG: aw well good job i hate when any of us fight

EB: me too

EB: jade?

GG: oh god i have to go i think karkat is dead!!!

EB: WHAT

You look up at Rose. 

“Is Karkat-” you ask urgently but Rose cuts you off with a hand over your mouth. 

“Shh, he’ll be fine. I promise.” Rose assures you. You’re not sure but Rose pulls you into a building so that Latula and Jane can investigate a murder mystery which Jane is all over. 

Within an hour there’s a message on the group message board saying that Karkat and Kankri are alive and well. Rose was right. Obviously not always but… she was right. So what, you wonder, is going to happen tonight?

  
  



End file.
